Operation Hippie Update

So, preparing to move from a nomadic, cat-sitting existence to a geostationary one, and one in a vegan ecovillage at that, is proving to be somewhat of a bigger shift than even I realized.

For starters, there’s the busfare to get there, which I do not have. Nor will I have it until one of my clients pays me, and I just split from the biggest-paying one by mutual consent. Yeah, I sent in The Last Invoice, but it’ll be Monday before it’ll be paid, and then it’ll be paid in Paypal, so to get it to the bank will be no sooner than Wednesday, probably Friday of next week and that’s IF it gets paid Monday. And once the money is there, if I’m there also, there’s nothing to buy up there but nights in a B&B and whale watching tours.

So I made Mine Hosts Metro and Mrs Metro an offer they could refuse, but fortunately they didn’t. I will give them the money that would go for bus fare if they will drive me. They can then use this to get a night in a swanky B&B or hotel. This guarantees that I get the back seat of the car, but oh well, it also guarantees I don’t have to sit beside a random homicidal maniac who will hog the armrest. It also means they can drive me to the actual site instead of dropping me off where the highway meets the road and I get a nice long walk down a gravel shoulder before turning up a dirt road in the middle of the rainforest, all while toting three heavy suitcases filled with everything I’ve been wearing for the past nine or ten months.

My footwear collection, also being ported around all over BC in said suitcases, consists of one pair of metallic wedge sandals, one pair Doc Marten Mary Janes, and two pairs of Brooks running shoes made of mesh. Absolutely nothing of the rain boot gum boot variety. And that is the single most necessary type of footwear when approaching an ecovillage on the west side of Vancouver Island in the dead of winter.

When I show up to the ecovillage, I am expected to be self-sufficient and bring food. They have kale; anything else, I’ll have to lug in. Since I am not and do not wish to become a Kaletarian, this means I have to buy food (too busy to catch my own, and the hunting is atrocious in downtown Victoria, although I hear at certain bars it’s easy to catch crabs).

And I have $1.90.

So, being me, I bitched about this on social media.

And, my friends being my friends, one of them sent me $100 so I could buy some goddam boots, two offered to mail me their boots (postage is $40 or so from Vancouver, though), and one offered me a job doing copywriting for his companies. He asked if I needed an advance, and told me to name my own rate. He trusted me to do that honestly in part because when my friend, who is between jobs, offered me the $100 I posted about it and asked my friends if I should take it or turn it down.

As it turned out, I turned down the mailed boots as the postage was truly extravagant and I could buy boots at the end of the month anyway, and accepted the money on the advice to pay it forward.

Then I went to LL Bean and found out the boots I wanted were 37% off, but they were also sold out until April 22, and a fat lot of good that does me. MOST of their boots are sold out, which means everyone is having a pretty shitty, slushy winter. So tomorrow I’m off to do some shopping in downtown Victoria.

My shopping list is a bit different now. When I lived in Vancouver’s Chinatown my shopping lists looked like:

sambal oeleck

udon noodles

bean thread noodles

peanut butter (the universe’s most perfect food)

prawns

salmon

chicken

soy sauce (you could always tell when I was “rich” because then I’d have three kinds: Indonesian, Japanese for sushi, and Chinese for rice)

bok choy

onions

makeup

nail polish in outrageous colours

antique or collectable cocktail accoutrements

gin

My shopping list for tomorrow reads:

gumboots

keeper cord for my $150 Akubra hat so the wind doesn’t blow it away

crab trap so I can catch my own food

fishing rod

bean thread noodles

peanut butter

sambal oeleck (some things never change)

bag of oranges in case of scurvy or some goddam thing

coffee and GOD I HOPE THEY HAVE A COFFEE POT IN THE COMMUNAL KITCHEN

It would be nice to get some glasses before I leave (the kind for your face, not the kind for your cocktails) so I could actually SEE the view, but maybe I’ll squeeze in an eye exam at least. Metro and Madame Metro have promised me glasses for Christmas. If not, once I’m paid I can just wander into town and I’m sure there’s a doctor there who can write a prescription that Clearly Contacts will mail.

Sooo once you are firmly ensconced Kaleville and geostationary does that mean you are unwired from the rest of us. I think you will be finding out the difference between going green and becoming green….. that is green with growing moss. Oh I hear some moss is edible http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/other/ai215e/ai215e06.htm

Wow! I have been working on a project and I’m backdated when it comes to what’s going on with you. So you are in Victoria now but headed for the Symbiosis ecovillage near Tofino and your friends are going to drive you there. Do I have that right? If so that sure sounds like an adventure.

So — the offer of glasses still stands. We need to sort that out. Sorry, shoulda done it when you were here. When you do get a prescription, get the distance between your pupils measured and noted down too, okay?

Let’s take care of that when I’m down on the 20th. If the Manolo pays me as he says he will, I still have two months of pay coming to me and will be able to afford the trip. Will pre-book a workshop, at least one, in Vancouver while I’m there. A single student will pay for the trip and a hotel room.

Here’s my rat deterrence tip – no poisons, traps or death involved
Put Bulldog steel wool on your list and buy it at the hardware stores where it’s cheaper. Stuff every small crack that provides access with it and your rat problem will be history.

I’m trying, but the buggers are crafty and there are crawl spaces they get into that I can’t, so I will have to get a ladder to chink up the holes from the outside.

There is only one store in town that carries steel wool, and nothing is cheap here. A bag of groceries that would have cost me $20 in Vancouver was $80, and I’m a clever shopper. There wasn’t even any meat or cheese in it.